Roller guide



June 3, 1969 P. E. PEMBERTON ROLLER GUIDE Filed Aug. 11, 1967 United States Patent 3,447,192 ROLLER GUIDE Paul E. Pemberton, Irving, Tex., assignor to Overhead Door Corporation, Dallas, Tex., a corporation of Indiana Filed Aug. 11, 1967, Ser. No. 659,922 Int. Cl. Ed 13/02, 1 5 26; A47h /00 US. Cl. 16104 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Field of the invention This invention relates in general to an upwardly acting door structure having a plurality of horizontally hinged sections or panels and, more particularly, to a door guide device having a bracket and roller capable of supporting the door section on a track, each bracket having a plurality of axially spaced shaft openings whereby each bracket can be used on any one of the sections.

State of the prior art It is common practice to provide the hingedly connected sections of an upwardly acting door with guide means including rollers located along the opposite lateral edges thereof for guiding the movement of each section of the door along track means between a substantially vertical or lowered position and a substantially horizontal or raised position. Moreover, it is common practice to slope the tracks slightly away from the plane of the door opening so that the upper sections of the door are spaced from the guide track a slightly greater distance than the lower sections when the door is in its lowered position. Thus, it is desirable to provide roller support brackets which can be used on any one of the door sections and still provide the variation in roller spacing from the plane of such section.

Attempts have been made to provide a multiple purpose roller support bracket with varying degrees of success. However, generally speaking, thees attempts have been unsatisfactory for several reasons including their lack of an adequate, inexpensive end immediately available bearing for the roller shaft in each position of support for the shaft by the bracket. Moreover, most of the previous support brackets had insufiicient shaft openings to accommodate satisfactorily the roller positions required for all of the sections in a complete door.

Accordingly, a primary object of this invention has been the provision of a guide device for an upwardly acting, sectional door including a roller support bracket hav ing a plurality of elongated, axially parallel openings for receiving a roller shaft and holding same in a variety of axially spaced positions.

A further object of this invention has been the provision of a roller support bracket, as aforesaid, having a plurality of substantially identical and axially parallel openings arranged so that such bracket can be used on any of the door sections, each of which may have a different requirement for the location of the rotational axis of the roller supported by the brackets, thereby permitting the posi- 3,447,192 Patented June 3, 1969 tioning of the various sections of a door in a substantially vertical plane even though the guide tracks therefor are at a slight, upwardly diverging angle away from the vertical.

Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with this type of equipment upon reading the following descriptive material and examining drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a broken, fragmentary and vertical crosssectional view of an upwardly acting door structure embodying the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a top view of a door guide device embodying the invention, and as appearing from the cutting line II-II in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragment of the guide device shown in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is a side view of said door guide device as appearing from the cutting line IVIV in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged fragment of FIGURE 1 including an end view of a modified guide device.

FIGURE 6 is a side view of the modified guide devices as appearing from the cutting line VIVI in FIGURE 5.

For convenience in description, the terms upper, lower and words of similar import will have reference to the door structure, the door guide device of the invention and parts associated therewith as appearing in FIG- URES 1, 3 and 4. The terms front and rear will have reference to the left and right sides, respectively, of the Y door structure and guide device as appearing in FIGURES l, 2 and 4. The words inner, outer and derivatives thereof will have reference to the geometric center of said guide device and parts associated therewith,

Summary of the invention The objects and purposes of the invention, including those set forth above, have been met by providing a door guide device adapted for mounting upon the sections of an upwardly acting door having a plurality or horizontal ly hinged sections, each guide device being comprised of bracket means having a plurality of axially parallel, elongated openings and a roller-support shaft receivable into any one of said openings for rotatably supporting the roller' with respect to the bracket means in a variety of different radially spaced positions with respect to the door section upon which the bracket means is mounted.

Detailed description The present invention applies to an upwardly acting door structure 10, a preferred embodiment being illustrated in FIGURE 1, which is movably mounted on and guided by a track means 11. Although any of a number of existing door structures may be used, the present embodiment is shown as having a plurality of sections, such as 12 and 12A, each of which have a frame 16 and a panel 17 constructed of any suitable material, such as fiberglass, and supported within the frame 16. The sections 12 and 12A are interconnected by hinge structure 19 comprising the upper rail 21 of the lower section 12A and the lower rail 22 of the upper section 12. The uppermost section 12 is provided with an upper rail 23, and the lowermost section 12A is provided with a base rail 24 to which may be attached a weather seal 26, which may abut against the floor 27.

A plurality of guide devices 28 (FIGURE 1) are mounted at appropriate locations along the opposite edges of each section 12 and 12A of door 10. Each of said guide devices 28 may be identical and, therefore, only one such device 28 will be described herein.

The device 28 is comprised of a shaft support bracket 29 having a pair of flanges having feet 31 and 32 (FIG- URES 1 and 4), which are provided with openings 33 and 34, respectively. The feet are preferably coplanar and are integral with legs 37 and 38, which converge away from said feet. The outer ends of the legs 37 and 38 (FIGURE 3) are integral with a multiwalled bearing structure 36 defined broadly by a multisurfaced upper wall 39 and a multisurfaced lower wall 41, which include a plurality of inwardly facing bearing surfaces, such as at 42, 43, 44 and 46.

The bearing surfaces 42, 43, 44 and 46 (FIGURE 3) are specifically defined by the portions of the walls 39 and 41 which are arranged to define shaft openings 42A, 43A, 44A, and 46A having rectangular cross sectons, preferably square and of the same size. Moreover, each opening communicates laterally with an adjacent opening so that all of said openings are interconnected to facilitate manufacture. For example, the opening 46A communicates with the openings 42A and 43A through the lengthwise slots 45 and 45A, respectively, as shown in FIGURES 1 and 3.

The central axes of openings 42A, 43A and 44A are preferably coplanar and the axis of opening 46A is offset from and parallel with the plane of said axes. The bracket 29 may be from an extruded member having the cross section of the bracket and made from a suitable material, such as metal.

The bracket 29 is secured to door section 12 or 12A by bolts 47 which extend through the openings 33 and 34. A shaft 51 may be rotatably supported within any of the bearing openings 42A, 43A, 44A, or 46A, and a roller 52 secured to or mounted upon one end of said shaft 51.

The roller 52 is engaged within the track 11, which may be channel-shaped with return flanges 53 and 54 for holding said roller in the track whereby their interengagement guides the movement of and supports the door 10.

Modified structure The modified guide device 57 (FIGURES and 6) includes a bracket 56 having a pair of coplanar and integral feet 58 and 59 by which said bracket may be attached on door section 12 or 12A. A pair of legs 61 and 62 extend from said feet, and a bearing structure 63 is supported upon the outward ends of said legs. The bearing structure 63 has an inner wall 64 and an outer wall 65 which are irregularly shaped to define a plurality of cylindrical shaft openings 66, 67, 68 and 6-9 having parallel axes arranged along an arcuate path. The openings 67 and 68 communicate lengthwise thereof to minimize their radial spacing. A shaft 51A may be rotatably mounted within any one of said openings 66, 67, 68 and 69, and a roller 52A is attached to or mounted upon the end of said shaft 51A. Said roller 52A is movably received within a track 11A.

Operation Although the operation of the door and guide device 28 has been indicated somewhat above, said operation will be described in detail hereinbelow for a more complete understanding of the invention. The track 11 may be mounted upon or near the door frame of the building, in the usual manner so that the lower portion of said track is upright and disposed at a slight, upwardly diverging angle from the vertical and the upper portion of said track is substantially horizontal. The door 10 is then mounted upon the track so that it will be vertical when it is in the lowered position. In order to accomplish this, the shaft 51 of the lowermost guide device 28 is received into the innermost shaft opening 42A, and the shaft 51 of the uppermost guide device 28 is received into the outermost shaft opening 44A, for example. The shafts 51 of the guide devices on the intermediate door sections are disposed in the openings 43A and 46A, as required. The supporting roller 52, which is mounted on the roller shaft 51, is guided in track 11. The present invention thus provides a multipurpose bracket which may be used on any section of the door.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A track-engaging guide device for an upwardly acting door structure having a plurality of sections connected by substantially horizontal hinge means and L-shaped track means for guiding the movement of said sections between substantially vertical and substantially horizontal positions, said track-engaging giude device comprising:

shaft support means including a plurality of horizontally elongated wall means defining at least three axially elongated and parallel shaft openings of substantially the same axial length and cross-sectional dimensions and having axes which extend substantially horizontally, the axis of one of said openings being positioned approximately between the axes of the other two openings and being laterally offset from a plane passing through the axes of said other two openings,

said wall means having internal bearing surfaces defining said openings and further having elongated slot means extending horizontally thereof for permitting direct communication between at least two of said openings;

said support means further having flange means integrally connected thereto for permitting said support means to be fixedly secured to one of said door sections;

elongated, cylindrical shaft means snugly and axially slideably received into any one of said shaft openings with said shaft means being in bearing engagement with said bearing surfaces; and

roller means mounted upon said shaft means and rotatable with respect to said support means around the longitudinal axis of said shaft means, said roller means being engageable with said track means for guiding one of said sections between said positions.

2. A guide device according to claim 1, wherein the cross sections of said openings are substantially square.

3. A guide device according to claim 2, wherein each of said shaft openings communicates laterally with an adjacent shaft opening throughout the axial extent thereof,

and all of said shaft openings are interconnected.

4. A guide device according to claim 1, wherein said flange means includes a pair of spaced leg members with each of said leg members having a foot portion in abutting contact with one of said door sections, and fastening means for fixedly securing each of said leg members to the same door section.

5. A guide device according to claim 1, wherein said shaft support means and the flange means integral therewith are independent of said hinge means, and wherein said flange means includes leg means fixedly secured to one of said door sections.

6. A guide device according to claim 1, wherein the openings all have circular cross sections of substantially the same diameter.

7. A guide device according to claim 5, wherein the axes of said shaft openings are arranged substantially along the arc of a circle, and wherein there are at least four shaft openings and said slot means permits the two centermost shaft openings to communicate laterally with each other throughout the axial extent thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,525,309 10/1959 Norbert l697 2,877,843 3/1959 Stroup l698 X 2,886,102 5/1959 Olsen et a1 16-97 X BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner.

A. M. CALVERT, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.-R. 49-410; -209 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,447,192

June 3, 1969 Paul E. Pemberton It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 4, line 8, giude" should read guide line 56, the claim reference numeral "5 should read 6 Signed and sealed this 21st day of April 1970.

(SEAL) Attest:

WILLIAM E. SCHUYLER, JR.

Edward M. Fletcher, Jr.

Commissioner of Patents Attesting Officer 

